The present disclosure relates generally to information handling systems, and more particularly to the resource allocation and management of virtual network functions in an information handling system network.
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Network Function Virtualization (NFV) is a network architecture concept that utilizes virtualization to provide entire classes of network node functions on information handling systems such as servers, switches, storage systems, cloud infrastructure, and/or other computing devices in order to enable network communications. A Virtualized Network Function (VNF) provided via NFV may include one or more virtual machines running on computing systems to enable networking functions, rather than using dedicated hardware networking appliances. Conventionally, VNF systems are provided on such computing systems using cluster placement techniques. Cluster placement techniques typically operate by grouping the physical topology of the computing systems in the network into hardware clusters, grouping the virtual topology that includes VNFs in the VNF system into software clusters, and providing each software cluster of VNFs on at least one of the hardware clusters of the computing systems. The provision of VNF systems in such a manner raises a number of issues.
For example, the grouping of VNFs in the VNF system into software clusters is typically performed by designating each group of connected VNFs as a software cluster, and then determining whether that software cluster can be provided on a respective hardware cluster in the computing system (e.g., a server or group of servers). If that software cluster cannot be provided on a respective hardware cluster in the computing system, that “primary” software cluster is broken up into a smaller “secondary” software clusters by removing the lowest bandwidth “edge VNFs” that transmit the lowest amount of traffic in the primary software cluster. The secondary software clusters are then provided in the hardware clusters using bin packing algorithms while ensuring capacity constraints are not exceeded, which works to maximize the traffic within VNF systems and minimize the traffic leaving VNF systems. Such clustering techniques typically reduce the communication distance between VNFs in the VNF systems while reducing the number of computing devices needed to provide the VNF systems. However, such clustering techniques can remove too many edge VNFs from a VNF system when, for example, there are multiple edge VNFs that transmit the same amount of traffic out of their primary software cluster. Furthermore, the selection of the lowest bandwidth VNFs for removal often results in non-optimal software clusters that separate VNFs that subsequently will need to communicate across the network fabric with VNFs from which they were separated.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an improved VNF resource allocation and management system.